Re: [coLinux-users] colinux & debian etch

[George P B. <geo...@gm...>]

baldyeti wrote:
> Pretty mysterious to me too, hence my questions here ;-)
> I think I read that etch will only use udev for fresh installs,
> not when upgrading, which would explain what you're seeing.
> Ideally I'd do a fresh install to say hdc11. But then how do
> I find the proper device alias for colinux (the wiki instructions
> are kinda hazy). Other than that, i'll try to backup, then simply
> let the upgrade run and see what happens...
>   

At the risk of getting way off-topic here...  and with this
'disclaimer':  this is MY UNDERSTANDING of it and it may not be complete
or 100% accurate...

  udev is a replacement for devfs, which was weighed and found wanting. 
udev like devfs determines device nodes more or less dynamically by what
the device drivers in the Linux kernel report or register back with the
kernel.  The major difference between devfs and udev is that udev is
largely a user program with a much, much smaller kernel footprint (ie
code that runs in the kernel/as a module).  There where bugs in the
early forms of udev, such that only more recent kernels (I believe magic
kernel that most have settled on for 'proper' udev support is anything
beyond 2.6.16).  You need not only udev support in the kernel, but a
udev program that runs early in the boot process.  I believe that unless
you particularly want udev, you can always bypass it/get around it by
manually creating the device nodes that you need.  Additionally, most
the udev configurations allow 'static' or force devices, although those
shouldn't be necessary for coLinux dives as they generally make the
necessary calls to the kernel to 'register' with devfs and/or udev.

  How this all this relates to coLinux... newer distros that are
requiring udev & forcing an reasonable kernel version will require
coLinux 0.8.0-based kernels or the udev daemon (if they don't do a
kernel version check) be configured to have the same device nodes as
you'd have if you weren't using udev, or udev disabled.  If they do
kernel version checks, you will need to work around this (if possible)
if not, then you have to use 0.8.0-based experimental version of your uses.

  Again this is my basic understanding of things and not a complete
anthology, there is lots of information on the web on udev, configuring
it, etc.  For the real scoop, do a little light digging in this
information and be enlightened. :)

George